Wednesday 19.07.2017, 13:11, somewhere between ascension island and brazil
we’re in the middle of nowhere. far from land and far from any civilization. although two cargo ships crossed our way earlier today, but that doesn’t count. i am lying in my bunk after i’ve finished my watch, writing these lines, while karin is on the helm, hand-steering our way trough the southern-atlantic, brian is reading a book in the cockpit, lizbef tries to answer all the “buy us a beer“ e-mails and alex and brady are editing future episodes.
i really like my bunk, which is located in the so called “love tunnel“. the tunnel is actually a hallway and connects the main living area with the back of the boat, which is brian’s and karin’s space. it contains my bunk as well. it’s equipped with two fans, storage cupboards, a small reading lamp, a wooden board which prevents me falling out of bed and a small window, which gives you an awesome view into the cockpit – by the way, it’s the perfect creeper window. there is all you need. i even decorated a little space on one of the wooden “walls“ with some quotes and pictures, which makes this bunk even more homey to me. the bunk is perfect if we’re port tacked – what we’re at the moment – and it’s even the most special bunk for listening to the ocean. imagine there is only this thin fiberglas wall between me and the open water, which allows me to listen to the liquid form of H2O while we are flying through it. for a musique concrete lover, like i am, it’s simply perfect. i can hear by the sound of water if delos is gaining or losing speed and i am able tell with how much effort delos is making its way trough the ocean. it’s awesome. you don’t need any tunes to fall asleep, because the perfect tune is right besides your ear.
although you might think it’s a bit annoying to live in a “thoroughfare“ (durchgangszimmer), but actually, it’s not. hardly anybody goes through my room anyway – except brian and karin of course, and if the bow bathroom is occupied, the crew eludes to the stern bathroom for poos and pees, which is also only accessible through my bunk. and if i really want to have some “lisa time“ i can easily close a small curtain, which separates the main living space from the tunnel. there is also a bigger curtain which divides the tunnel itself in the hallway and my bunk, but i’ve never used this one so far. the small curtain does its job for me.
in the last few days i thought a lot about how we share the space here on delos, and the more i think about it, the weirder and more exceptional it gets.
first of all i have to admit that i’m actually not a big fan of sharing houses or flats.
what?! are you serious lisa?! what the hell are you doing then on delos?!
let me try to explain…
i’ve only lived in shared flats during my time at university (and i miss nearly all my former flat mates), but the idea of living alone has always been more attractive to me than sharing a flat or a house. the reasons why: no arguing about dishes, bathroom cleaning schedule, cooking, landlord stuff, money, repair responsibilities, furniture and so on… it’d be all my job and my decisions, and if i don’t look after the flat/house, nobody else would do it for me. so i wouldn’t be able to blame anybody for not doing what they actually should do, and that’s how i wouldn’t get any bad thoughts or feelings about other people – what makes life neither easy for me nor for the regarded person. because the only person i could judge for not doing the house/flatwork would be me.
still, i’ve never experienced how it’d feel to come home day by day and nobody would be there. but i honestly have to say, that i really enjoy being all by myself. very often being surrounded by people pulls a lot of energy out of me, and i need a good amount of time to recover from that, to have enough energy again to be with people. so sharing a flat/house is often kind of draining for me. not so easy for a hypersensitive person like me, because that doesn’t mean at all that i don’t like people or sharing things. no, not at all. of course i want to have a social life and be with people. but as a hypersensitive person i’ve to figure out a good way to deal with this characteristic.
here on delos you are never alone. never. let me repeat it for you: N.E.V.E.R.
imagine a person like me in this surrounding – insane. how should this even work?
but you knew this before lisa…
yes, you are right. i knew this before. but i didn’t know that i will stay on delos for so long. i thought i would leave the boat in namibia, but i am still here. for 1 or 2 months i would be able to pull myself together – that’s what i thought before i came on the boat. it isn’t easy for me all the time, that’s for sure. i think i can speak for everyone here, but it works. it works even better than in all my shared flats so far, although the space we have is WAY smaller, a room for yourself is nearly inexistent and you are always, constantly, 24/7 surrounded by people.
bäääm lisa. deal with that.
and you know what – i like it. i enjoy it and there was not one moment where i wanted to escape from this small space.
i wondered why it is like it is. why living together with 5 other people on this boat works out so good. what is the difference between sharing a boat, in the way we do, than sharing a flat? why do i feel comfortable here without having a door to my own room, which i can close whenever i want? (you can’t count the small curtain in this case, because you can still hear everything what happens on the boat) why does this work for me way better than sharing a flat before, although it’s way more intense?
i came to the conclusion that there is this 1 major point which makes living together on delos so unique, easy and smooth for me. and maybe i speak here for the whole crew.
>> we are all working for/on the same thing.
we are all doing our best to keep the delos project running, so our work-goals are the same. it’s kind of an office you never leave – and we fu***** love our work! so the bridge between work and life is nearly inexistent, because it’s so fluid. no work life balance needed, because in the end it’s just life itself.
normally you get up in the morning, maybe sharing breakfast with your flat mates and going to work afterwards. everybody does their daily-businesses, maybe visiting a gym or a pub after work and then return to the flat where you’ll meet each other again, sharing your experiences of the day during dinner, or not at all. the next day everything repeats. until the weekend arrives, where you can do what you want, respectively where you have to sort out all the flat/housework, what you haven’t been able to do during the week. what i’ve experienced so far is, that in a shared flat things like cleaning, cooking and repairing things are mostly topics to argue about. the time schedules of all the flat mates are so diverse, because what everybody does is so different itself. so most of the time nobody has ever time to clean, because everyone is busy all the time, nobody feels responsible for repairing the broken lamp, calling the plumber or dump the empty wine bottles. although there might be even a plan for that, but hardly anybody will stick to it. on top of that you are normally not working on/for the same thing and it’s not common to have the same goals.
here on delos everything goes hand in hand – the cleaning, the editing, shopping, adventuring, relaxing, repairing, blogging, cooking, etc. because everything is part of the job. every little piece is important to make the project run. and everybody works TOGETHER for/on the same thing. the whole lifestyle is the project itself. so denying any part of it wouldn’t work. not one topic you would probably discuss in a shared flat needs to be discussed here on delos – if you don’t follow the cooking/cleaning/watch schedule as it is set up, your flat-mates/business buddies/traveller friends/salty sailors will get grumpy and the project wouldn’t run as smooth as it should be. and that’s not what we want. everybody is quite certain about that and everyone knows that its part of the game. it’s as simple as that: if you cook, you clean. i think that’s the main reason why living in this small space together works out so good. it also needs the right people to do so, that’s for sure, but you would not be on delos if you didn’t have the right vibe for this kind of lifestyle anyway.
that is what makes delos so special to me, because everything goes hand in hand and i know for sure that everybody takes every single point of making this lifestyle happen very serious. i can rely on every single one of them that they will stick to our various schedules and i never had the feeling i have to remind anyone of them of their job. (i wouldn’t be the right person for that anyway. that’s why every boat has a captain ???? ) and in the end, i am a part of the project as well. so i have to try my best to make everybody feel comfortable – including myself – and to make sure the project can continue smoothly!
oh, and here comes brian. asking me for assistance for repairing the pole.
so, i’ve got to go. work needs to be done.
it’s just another day in the office.
and we all love our office.
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